


baby don't believe

by shathereal



Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, conflicted feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-15 03:27:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19287178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shathereal/pseuds/shathereal
Summary: Gourry’s eyes startled open, only to see Zangulus standing before him with a slight frown. His wedding clothes were crumpled, the blue sash pushed slightly over a crooked epaulet, jacket buttons haphazardly pushed back together. His signature jaunty hat, impeccable as always, remained in place.“Oh, hey, Zangulus,” Gourry looked up at the other man, trying to pass off his nearly falling asleep, “Great party!”“Thanks,” the bridegroom of Zoana responded a touch dully. There was something about his tone that didn’t fit with a celebration.--Inspired by an inspired work of fan art on Tumblr, I wrote a little one shot tinkering with the ending of NEXT.





	baby don't believe

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fan fiction. Slayers is owned by Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I do not claim ownership to Slayers or any of its characters nor am I profiting financially from this work.
> 
> Check the end notes for links to the inspiration.

The crowd pulsed around Gourry as he waded through the throng of people—the air was thick with the frenzy of celebration and inebriation. Gourry tugged at his collar in a vain effort to generate cool air. The writhing crowd of drunk and sweaty partygoers celebrating the nuptials of Martina and Zangulus brought up the room temperature significantly. _I need fresh air!_ Gourry thought as he maneuvered past a couple dancing so closely that they might as well have been a single person.

 

“Hey hot stuff, wanna dance?” a woman purred as Gourry walked past. She had large, pendulous breasts that her low-cut dress barely concealed.

 

‘H-hey,” Gourry averted his eyes; he was a gentleman, after all. The woman smiled sultrily at him, surely not realizing her red lipstick was smeared, “You’ve got something on your chin!”She let out an indignant huff and disappeared into the crowd. Gourry shook his head. Wasn’t it polite to tell someone when they had something on their face?

 

A rousing cheer came from the other side of the room—despite already having made a Proper Entrance, the crowd would burst into hoots and hollers whenever Martina and her bridegroom re-entered the room. Where they were always off to, who knows, Gourry figured. Martina and Zangulus beamed as partygoers came to congratulate them. Gourry realized he probably ought to do so as well, but it was _stifling_ in this crowd. His fair share of the celebratory drinks certainly didn’t help what with his head reeling from the intoxicant buzzing throughout his body.

 

Gourry looked back to where the cheers had begun and saw Zangulus and Martina practically hanging off of each other as guests came up to wish their congratulations and put more drinks in their hands. Martina was gushing about who-knows-what as Zangulus stared around the room. Gourry, standing a good head higher than most of the crowd, caught his eye. Zangulus gave him a meaningful look, one that Gourry couldn’t quite place. Gourry waved, but (mostly) thanks to his mild inebriation, he didn’t notice Zangulus waving back as he had already turned around to reach the edge of the crowd.

 

Tables with empty platters lined the sides of the room where Gourry noticed a door slightly set ajar just next to the scarce dessert table—Lina must’ve gotten there first. Only briefly mourning the loss of his opportunity for dessert, Gourry pushed the door open and sighed in contented relief. The gods had smiled upon him: the room was mercifully empty, several degrees cooler than the dance floor just outside, and full of comfortable furniture. Gourry immediately slumped down on the plush couch, the alcohol in his veins making his limbs feel heavier than usual. Out of habit, he reached around so that he wouldn’t accidentally sit on the Sword of Light’s hilt. He grasped at air. Right. His family’s Sword was gone. Gone.

 

Gourry tried to push that particular thought out of his buzzing mind. It was a time of celebration! Not a time to mope about losing a family heirloom. And as much as he tried, not to be tired and overheated. Weren’t parties supposed to be fun? He dragged a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. Maybe if he just sat here for a minute, he would feel better. He crossed his arms and leaned back, smiling at the sweet relief of an empty, cool room.

 

He wondered vaguely what Lina had gotten up to. Last he saw her, she had a couple glasses of that fizzy white drink and was giggling away with Amelia, who had finally given up her less-than-subtle attempts to get Zelgadis on the dance floor. It was so good to see Lina enjoying herself, he thought sleepily. She needed it after all they had just been through with those Monsters. Just exactly what that all entailed was still fuzzy to him, alcohol or not, but his instincts made him feel pretty certain that they all needed a break.

 

“Gourry?”

 

Gourry’s eyes startled open, only to see Zangulus standing before him with a slight frown. His wedding clothes were crumpled, the blue sash pushed slightly over a crooked epaulet, jacket buttons haphazardly pushed back together. His signature jaunty hat, impeccable as always, remained in place.

 

“Oh, hey, Zangulus,” Gourry looked up at the other man, trying to pass off his nearly falling asleep, “Great party!”

 

“Thanks,” the bridegroom of Zoana responded a touch dully. There was something about his tone that didn’t fit with a celebration. Zangulus plopped onto the couch next to Gourry, close enough to catch the heady whiff of sweat, beer, and something musky that he couldn’t place. The two men sat there without speaking. Gourry wasn’t really sure what to say to Zangulus—most of their interactions involved the new king aggressively challenging him to a duel. How do you have a normal conversation with that kind of history?

 

“Needed a break from the party too, huh?” Zangulus leaned back onto the couch and lazily faced Gourry, hot breath tickling his cheek.

 

“Y-yeah,” Gourry scooted over slightly. There was something about Zangulus’ proximity that unnerved him.

 

“Ah,” Zangulus pulled out a pouch, a pipe, and a small box of matches. Gourry watched curiously as the man took some crumbled leaves out of the pouch and gently packed them into the…basket? Isn’t that the round thing at the end was called? Smoking had never been a hobby of Gourry’s, but he remembered that his gramps usually had a pipe around when he was a kid.

 

Zangulus deeply inhaled and held the smoke in his lungs for a moment before exhaling. “Want some?” he held out the pipe. Gourry shook his head, noticing that whatever Zangulus was smoking didn’t smell like his gramps’ tobacco. “Suit yourself,” Zangulus took another hit off the pipe. Gourry wasn’t sure what to say. Something was off about his self-appointed rival. Shouldn’t he be happy? It’s not every day a man becomes King.

 

The two men fell back into not speaking as Zangulus continued to smoke his pipe, a melancholy look crossing his features. _Maybe he’s just tired too_ , Gourry thought.

 

“You ok, Zangulus?” Gourry broke the silence—which really wasn’t all that silent, what with the thrum of the music and revelry just outside.

 

Zangulus made a vaguely affirmative noise. Gourry wasn’t sure if that affirmation was actually true but let the silence hang in the air, waiting for Zangulus to answer.

 

“You know,” Zangulus finally said, “You’re very lucky to have Lina Inverse. She fought quite fiercely for you.”

 

“I did promise to protect her,” Gourry looked over at Zangulus with a soft smile as he thought of Lina, “Guess she thought it fair to do the same.”

 

“Seems so,” Zangulus looked down at his pipe as if he were to take another puff but instead clunked it down on the table, “I’m sure she’s very relieved you’re ok.”

 

The slightly cashed contents of the pipe scattered as it hit the table. Zangulus did not seem to care at all. Gourry tilted his head slightly, a puzzled look crossing his handsome features.

 

“Zangulus?”

 

Zangulus twisted to face Gourry, staring into his eyes very intently.

 

“I’m glad you’re ok, too,” he rasped. Gourry did not get the chance to respond—Zangulus reached over and cradled his head gently before bringing his lips to Gourry’s.

 

Gourry’s eyes widened in shock as the man’s mouth caressed his own. What was he supposed to do? Slap him? Stick him with the Sword of Light? (Wait, no. Sword of Light’s still gone.)

 

Abruptly, Zangulus pulled away and considered Gourry through half-closed eyes.Zangulus’ dark eyes, normally full of valiance and activity, languidly appraised Gourry with an emotion that Gourry wasn’t quite comfortable acknowledging.

 

“Z-zangulus,” Gourry sputtered, “What are you—”

 

He couldn’t finish his question—Zangulus’ lips were already back on Gourry’s. With a soft sigh, Gourry’s eyes fluttered shut. There was something comforting about this urgent kiss. What Gourry didn’t realize was that his sigh would cue his once self-appointed rival to deepen the kiss and before he really understood what was happening, Zangulus’ tongue was inside his mouth, licking his own with earnest. He tasted vaguely of alcohol, of pineapple cake. Gourry had always like pineapple cake—where was this pineapple cake, anyway? Did Lina get to it first?

 

Zangulus moaned softly as he moved his hand downward, slowly caressing from Gourry’s chest to abdomen to even further below with fingers very, very close to--

 

—and as if someone dumped a bucket of water on him, Gourry’s inebriated mind finally caught up to what was happening. He jerked away, but not without catching the disappointment in Zangulus’ eyes. The two men stared at each other, daring the other to speak first.

 

The door came crashing open.

 

“Oh, Zangulus my King, there you are!” cooed Martina, her face flushed from more than her fair share of the celebratory libations. Her dress too was rumpled, her bustier dangerously close to slipping, “Wanna fuck in the throne room again?”

 

“Why, of course, my Queen!” It was as if Zangulus had become another person entirely. This Zangulus, at least, Gourry was a little more familiar with. Gourry watched curiously as the man stood up, “Fare thee well, Gourry! The wedding night responsibilities beckon!” Martina squealed in delight as he hoisted her over his shoulder and patted her on the bum.

 

“Good bye, Gourry!” Martina echoed.

 

“Uh, see ya,” Gourry was still reeling from this very confusing encounter with Zangulus. He sat there dazed, before he was interrupted by an annoyingly cheerful voice,

 

“Well, Mr. Gourry, it seems you misplaced your sword!”

 

Gourry blinked several times in rapid succession—with the way things were going that evening, was it really that Xellax guy hovering in the air before him with his family’s Sword of Light?

 

The door once again was thrown open, this time with a certain red-haired sorceress.

 

“Hey! I thought I heard an annoying voice—oh, there you are, Gourry, we’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

 

Gourry looked blankly at Lina and then back at Xellos.

 

“H-hey, it’s my sword,” he managed to stammer. Lina’s head immediately turned to see that yes, Xellos was holding the Sword of Light.

 

“What are you doing with his sword?!” she demanded with hands on her hips. Despite her efforts, Lina would’ve been slightly more menacing had she not swayed slightly on her feet from all those fizzy drinks.

 

“Oh Miss Lina, I was just taking care of it,” Xellos responded cheerily as he handed it to Gourry, “But now that it’s been returned, I really must be on my way! I’m sure we’ll see each other again one day.” At that, the Monster vanished.

 

“I guess it was nice of that Xellax guy to watch my sword,” Gourry said lamely, staring down at his sword back in his own hands. Lina snorted.

 

“Xell- _os_ ,” she reminded, “But good thing he kept it safe! Saves us a trip to find ya a new one.” Lina beamed as she sat down on the couch arm, not taking in Gourry’s general sense of confusion at all, and began to prattle on about the party antics of Zoana’s citizens. These antics paled in comparison to what Gourry just experienced and finally he spoke up.

 

“Hey, Lina?”

 

“Yes, Gourry?”

 

Something about his simply addressing her caused a slight blush to spread across Lina’s cheeks. She leaned forward expectantly.

 

“Can… can we go?”

 

“Sure,” she sighed, deflated over something but Gourry wasn’t sure what. They left the room to find that the party was starting to cool down, both figuratively and literally. Across the room, Amelia waved as Zelgadis gestured his head towards the main exit. They must be ready to leave too. The pairs reunited as four as they walked out the large door together.

 

A cheer erupted from behind, and Gourry glanced back. Zangulus and Martina had returned from their throne room rendezvous. Zangulus looked at their direction, clearly having noticed the four’s departure. He gave a mournful wave in Gourry’s direction.

 

Something about how pitiful Zangulus looked struck Gourry in that moment, and instead of frantically turning away, he smiled. Not a beatific smile, mind you, but certainly a beam that Zangulus could see from across the room. He softly waved back, his wave much friendlier and lighter.

But with his friends in tow, Gourry continued on and out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this piece of fan art by anxioussailorsolider (https://anxioussailorsoldier.tumblr.com/)-- unfortunately it looks like the original post was deleted, but you can still see it on my reblog: https://shathereal.tumblr.com/post/183992836870/anxioussailorsoldier-dub-con-gourry-and


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